Portland City Grill — Restaurant in Portland

This review is solely based upon me and my partners experience at the New Years event, that which we payed 225 each for. If you are going for an intimate general reservation I would recommend— but absolutely do NOT do the events.

Atmosphere:

We were all packed into a side room area with large tables with 7 seats each, and anything smaller or more intimate was ‘reserved’ which in reality just meant it was for ‘mingling’ and no food would be served at these tables. The dance floor was very small which created a crowding effect that caused people to constantly bump into each other— this completely turned me away from wanting to dance with my partner— though honestly the music did that first.

We were positioned to be one of the FARTHEST tables away from the band and for some reason they blared the music so loud that we couldn’t even talk to our peers— when i say i was yelling in their ears to make conversation and words were still getting lost in the blast of mid 2000s pop i am making an understatement. I looked over the other tables to see if this was some acoustic anomaly that our table was facing, but I noticed that other tables weren’t even mingling— assuming it was too much work to make even casual conversation over the noise. It was so bad multiple members of our table started getting headaches. My partner and I even left to get a break at the bar in the general dining area away from the event and honestly we regret not reserving a table there instead.

Decorations:

Meh. Nothing grand to say though I do want to comment on our tables decorations because I feel like it highlights the event in its entirety— it was basic paper junk— no poppers, nothing actually fun to bring in the new year. But I may say the real show stopper was the paper new year’s cone hats that someone gave up on figuring out so they just stapled them into a wonky unwearable sloped mess. I first thought it was a table decoration until i realized others tables had ones made properly. At least it was an ice breaker.

Food:

I’ll start with the bar, i thought maybe there would be a ticket system where they’d give you one drink on the house and the rest paid, but nothing remotely like that. I went to simmilar events in chicago in a cheaper price range and so I guess my expectations were too high, but so be it. It was over priced, total of 3 drinks cost 58 with gratuity. Bartenders were good and did their job well.

The trickling of food with the 5 course meal felt rushed and yet somehow my 1st course meal came cold (it was not the shrimp). I have a hunch they may have been behind schedule as when 9:30 rolled around our food was still not present. Honestly thats fine, stuff happens sometimes.

The food itself was inconsistent, my mashed potato’s felt clumpy and lobster rubbery from being overcooked, the 4oz was great though! My partners mashed potatoes were runny and the lamb was good but the portion felt more like rations than an actual meal.

Dessert was good, though there was the illusion of choice with either a cheese plate or chocolate cake. I saw someone order the cheese plate at a different table— it was abysmal.

Service:

I worked in the service industry so I don’t usually like to complain about service, but it is something that was paid for along with the event. The band was fine, besides the deafening music. I know someone mentioned complaining, but I saw no change in the volume. As for plates they were taken accordingly and they were very on-top of clean up which was nice.

At the very end of the event, 5 min before new years was supposed to strike, my partner took the timer out so that we can watch the countdown together and kiss. I don’t know how but the announcer missed the count my 15 seconds. We both were counting down at the correct time and chanting and when it hit it dawned that their time was off. I want to note that my partner was using an official website so no user error on his part. Honestly it just kind of sucked.

When you pay 225 you expect more.

We decided we’re going to a...

We came for new years where it was advertised live piano would be playing . It wasn’t ,when we got there it said 8pm piano but nowhere on the website did it say that. No bloody Mary’s were available and we came early in the night 4:10 pm, also they were out of two different beers my husband asked for. Wish they were more prepared. We started with the bar area and when sat at our table they asked us to close our check, our server Angela was offended we ordered appetizer's at the bar and didn’t combine it with her check and she expressed to us that she was confused why we did that. We were in the bar waiting for over a hour, we also had no choice if you bring me a bill im going to pay it , tip the people who helped me and move on. When we arrived to the table my friend asked for separate checks ahead of time (we were on a double date) and she rolled her eyes. Without saying anything she walked away. She took our order and we all ordered the same thing when our salads and soup came out I asked for bread for the table because we never got given any. She seemed annoyed with ever request when all of them were basic requests or what is expected of her. We shouldn’t have to ask for bread, to have our plates removed, or for silverware. Our food was awesome , so good! Everything was cooked correctly and delicious. Angela was refilling wine for one of us and poured it all over the table , not a big deal we all reassured Angela it was fine. Which made her mood lighten up and she was nicer for a moment . After we finished our main courses it had been cutting it close to our next event. I said “I’m so sorry , could we get our dessert's in Togo containers ,a Togo container for my food, and the checks. We have somewhere to be” and I kept saying thank you . Because she was rolling her eyes and not responding while clearing the table. She came back almost ten min later with deserts on a plate . Togo boxes and a bag separately brought to the table. We boxed everything up ourselves and had to ask for the check again. She took along time again and explained she had to split the check. I had then said “do you have a dressing container I could have for Togo” (I had a full lobster tail left and wanted to keep the butter) she said no we don’t have those , I asked and showed her what I was talking about again ( the metal ramekin ) and she rolled her eyes put her hand on her head and shook her head saying “we don’t have those , I just told you that”. We still ended up tipping appropriately , and left she was a terrible server, everyone else was wonderful from the host to the bussers. I am not entirely convinced I will be returning , since they were out of everything we wanted to drink , had no piano playing , and our server was horrible which is a shame because the steak was perfect. Happy new years to everyone...

The view is amazing so we will continue to bring out of town guests for a nice meal. For our own special family/friend occasions though we’ll pass on coming here. The service is only okay and the food is also reminiscent of a basic restaurant. For example, they cooked my wife’s steak well done (or extremely well done) when she asked for medium well. My uncle’s “charred” (or some other descriptor indicating well done) fish was partly raw. The kids grilled cheese sandwich is oddly spicy, something most children won’t tolerate. The Gorgonzola/apple/walnut salad was almost all greens and nothing of the title. I literally had one fragment of a walnut on my salad and my wife’s was similar. The list goes on and on with the food being not as great as we’d hoped for over multiple visits.

The actual servers for the half a dozen times we’ve visited have all been great on their own account. The server, however, doesn’t deliver most of the food, pick up dishes, and refill drinks. They take the order, check on you after food delivery, and take the check. Otherwise they have a lot of assistance that is not on par with the experience it seems like this restaurant would want to create. Today, for Mother’s Day, nobody cleared our plates after the first course. When the food runner came out with our main dishes, he shoved plates precariously on the table since there was no room. I asked if he would be able to possibly remove two empty plates in a nice tone. He was visibly angry (or confused with the benefit of the doubt) and appeared to almost lose his temper as he stared at me. Then he bit his tongue and finally walked away with the two plates. It was rather strange, especially when it was so obvious that there were empty plates on the table and not enough room after he dropped off the dishes. It seemed like he thought removing plates was beneath him; either that or he wasn’t trained for the possibility of a table being full. Note: this was not the chef, as this person ran food to various tables throughout our visit. While this was the worst oddly rude and aggressive service we’ve had here, (maybe at any restaurant ever) other visits to the Portland city grill had runners not trained in holding plates, as they touched well into the food area with their hands. Other people cleared our table in a way that treated us like we were in their way on yet a different visit over the holidays. It’s just detracting to have a server trained in fine dining but to have the support staff be so inconsistent.

Again, the view and ambiance are great. We’d actually come here a lot more if the service and food quality matched the atmosphere. Maybe next time will be different and if so, we’ll gladly update our review. This review, as mentioned, is based on about 6 or so visits over...